#87, "The Time Machine"

"The Time Machine"
by H. G. Wells

This book was published in 1895. I love the old-timey writing (most of the time). Wells has a fairly good sense of character and realism of tone, though the pacing and the propulsion of the book I felt was lacking. It is short enough that you can just hash through the story fairly quickly, as there is no character development, no subplots, and is realistically written as if some guy was telling a tale to his colleagues of something he just did. I suppose that's what Wells was going for. As a thought-experiment, then, it is interesting, but as a novel, it is not particularly compelling once you get past the time travelling bits. My favorite part of the novel was when the Time Traveller went 30 million years into the future. It's one thing to think about what the world will look like a hundred years from now, or even a thousand...but 30 million years! It would be a different place altogether. There is a lot of speculation on human development, a lot of evolutionistic theory and talk--though the Time Traveller admits that most of his theories end up being dead wrong and we aren't given any resolution as to what actually happens, which keeps the book from being preachy or prophetic, as you might expect from such a book today. It is low on plot and explanation. A fine read, but not a favorite, and, if I compare it to other of Wells' stories, certainly less compelling than The War of the Worlds. However, as I say, it is a worthy thought-experiment and in that it succeeds quite well.